Bamboo Innovator

Mapping The 7 “Risk” Horsemen Of The Sept-ocalypse

Mapping The 7 “Risk” Horsemen Of The Sept-ocalypse

Tyler Durden on 09/04/2013 21:50 -0400

Ahead of September, historically the worst month for stocks, Deutsche Bank notes that volatility has picked up and corporate bond issuance has slowed. There are several possible risks over the next few weeks that could trigger a further escalation in market volatility…

Via Deutsche Bank,

1. Emerging markets could become more vulnerable as the Fed tapers QE and capital outflows from EM intensify

Read more of this post

Green Mountain is betting consumers want to get soup from the same machine that brews their morning joe

Updated September 4, 2013, 7:14 p.m. ET

Maker of Coffee Pods Adds New Flavor: Soup

Green Mountain, Campbell to Introduce Packets for Broth

ANNIE GASPARRO

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. GMCR +1.34% is betting consumers want to get soup from the same machine that brews their morning joe. The company on Wednesday announced a deal with Campbell Soup Co.CPB +0.40% to sell K-Cups for Green Mountain’s Keurig machines that will brew a cup of chicken broth. The K-cups will come with packets of dried noodles and vegetables to mix in. The deal marks Green Mountain’s first attempt to expand its single-serve coffee brewers beyond beverages. Read more of this post

China and India: The Roadster and the Minivan; China Beats India Hands Down When It Comes to Growth in Vehicle Demand, but Profits Are Another Matter

September 4, 2013, 12:51 p.m. ET

China and India: The Roadster and the Minivan

China Beats India Hands Down When It Comes to Growth in Vehicle Demand, but Profits Are Another Matter

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

China’s car industry is running much faster than India’s right now. But down the road, Indian auto makers may find the going smoother. Though both emerging-market giants are slowing, China’s demand for cars is stronger. The number sold there will rise 13% this year, against a 7% drop in India, according to research firm LMC Automotive. That gap mirrors the big difference in each country’s economic performance. India’s gross-domestic-product growth in the June quarter was 4.4%, whereas China’s was 7.5%. Meanwhile, India’s inflation rate of 9% is almost three times that of China. And while both countries import oil, the rupee’s 19% fall against the dollar this year, compared to the yuan’s 2% rise, increases fuel costs in local terms. Read more of this post

The rarity of quality work, low income from television broadcasts and the insufficient development of related merchandise has put 85% of Chinese comic and animation companies in the red

Lack of quality puts China’s animation industry in a rut

Staff Reporter

2013-09-05

The rarity of quality work, low income from television broadcasts and the insufficient development of related merchandise has put 85% of Chinese comic and animation companies in the red. Meanwhile in Japan, legendary animator and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement on Sept. 1. His final feature film — The Wind Rises — set a box office record of 4.3 billion yen (US$43.22 million) within 16 days, a healthy earning in a gigantic market. According to data compiled by the Ministry of Culture, China’s output value for 2012 touched 76 billion yuan (US$12.4 billion), up 22.23% year-on-year. Nevertheless, the figure still lagged Japan’s 1.67 trillion yuan (US$273 billion) market scale. Read more of this post

Sober Day Dawns for China’s Baijiu Distillers; Makers of the nation’s favorite spirits are waking up to a business slowdown after a decade of growth

09.04.2013 18:41

Sober Day Dawns for China’s Baijiu Distillers

Makers of the nation’s favorite spirits are waking up to a business slowdown after a decade of growth

By staff reporter Qu Yunxu

(Beijing) – Distillers of China’s most popular spirits, baijiu, are sobering up to a business slowdown and tight financing after a decade of outstanding growth. Sales are off and company market values have fallen over the past year, prompting some investors to cash in their bets on minor and big-name distillers alike. Industry leaders such as Tuopai Shede Wine Co., Kweichow Moutai Co. Ltd. and Luzhou Laojiao Co. attracted plenty of investors by racking up huge profits for four years straight starting in 2008. Read more of this post

Luxury goods create vanity economy in China

Luxury goods create vanity economy in China

Staff Reporter

2013-09-05

Luxury goods and their high quality replicas have created a vanity business of considerable value in China. The Sanyuanli leather wholesale market in Guangzhou offers the highest number of world famous luxury brands, the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Review reported. Around 10am every day, wholesalers from Saudi Arabia to South Africa as well as local vendors pack the market, selling handmade leather goods both original and counterfeit. Read more of this post

Following Bank of America’s sale of two billion shares in China Construction Bank, almost all foreign banks with the exception of HSBC no longer hold strategic stakes in any Chinese banks

Sale of CCB shares not a good sign
Thursday, September 05, 2013, The Standard
Global stock markets found an excuse to rise yesterday as US President Barack Obama awaited his lawmakers’ approval to strike Syria. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2 percent to 2,127, hitting a multiweek high. But it is still 13 percent below the year-high – 2,444 – set in February, or 38 percent below its 2009 high of 3,478 reached in August of that year. We have no reason to turn bullish. Following Bank of America’s sale of two billion shares in China Construction Bank, almost all foreign banks with the exception of HSBC Holdings (0005) no longer hold strategic stakes in any mainland lender. This is not a good sign. Foreigners are selling while state-owned China Investment Corporation is buying. The market has kept discounting possible systemic risk in China linked to shadow banking, wealth management products or local government debt. As more senior officials of PetroChina (0857) face investigations, companies linked to the firm are also coming under scrutiny. I am talking specifically about Wison Engineering Services (2236). Its yearly profit is about 500 million yuan (HK$630 million). The stock is now suspended.

Energy-Hungry China Struggles to Join Shale-Gas Revolution; Royal Dutch Shell Finds Drilling for Shale Gas in China Isn’t Easy

September 4, 2013, 11:03 p.m. ET

Energy-Hungry China Struggles to Join Shale-Gas Revolution

Royal Dutch Shell Finds Drilling for Shale Gas in China Isn’t Easy

BRIAN SPEGELE and JUSTIN SCHECK

MAOBA, China—When Royal Dutch Shell RDSB.LN +0.14% PLC began a multibillion-dollar effort to tap China shale gas a few years ago, it seemed like a can’t-miss wager. China has the world’s most extensive shale gas reserves, biggest energy market, and a government pushing for expanded gas production. But for Shell and its state-controlled partner, China National Petroleum Corp. the reality on the ground makes its bet look riskier. Read more of this post

China Weighs Deregulating Aviation Market; Change Would Give Startup Carriers Access to Prime International Routes

September 4, 2013, 2:04 p.m. ET

China Weighs Deregulating Aviation Market

Change Would Give Startup Carriers Access to Prime International Routes

DOUG CAMERON

CHICAGO—China is taking steps to deregulate its domestic and international aviation market, and may amend its closely watched air-transport treaty with the U.S., according to a senior Chinese airline executive. Flag carrier Air China Ltd. 601111.SH -0.98% could lose its effective monopoly on some prime international routes within a year while regulators are opening the door to new carriers in the country’s interior for the first time after half-a-decade of breakneck growth, according to Wei Hou, vice president of Hainan Airlines Co.,600221.SH -1.49% the country’s fourth-largest by traffic. Read more of this post

Not all Asian countries need to fear the Fed

Not all Asian countries need to fear the Fed

Filed 4 hours ago

By Andy Mukherjee

Falling Asian currencies have triggered a sell-off in bonds and equities. Some investors now fear a repeat of a 1997-style crisis. Yet while a new Breakingviews’ interactive risk map shows no economy in the Asia-Pacific region is entirely sober, it is India that has become most addicted to cheap money. The risk map ranks the region’s economies according to eight vulnerabilities by measuring the deterioration since just before the onset of the global financial crisis. The most pressing concern for investors is the region’s worsening trade balance. Read more of this post

Seoul ‘jeonse’ price equivalent to 5 years of income

Seoul ‘jeonse’ price equivalent to 5 years of income

2013.09.03 14:27:09

The average ‘Jeonse’ apartment price in Seoul, South Korea is on a par with five-year average income of urban worker households, data showed. “Jeonse,”refers to a lease system in which a tenant pays a large lump-sum deposit for typically a two-year rental period.  Jeonse price of a 99 to 132-square-meter apartment in the Seoul metropolitan area was at 216 million won ($197,807) as of year-end, which is a 3.94-fold increase from the previous year’s average annual income of 55 million won, according to a local realtor’s data on jeonse prices of 6.99 million apartments nationwide and the Statistics Korea’s urban worker household (comprising two or more persons) annual income.  Read more of this post

SBY Seeks Return of Suharto-Era Elections

SBY Seeks Return of Suharto-Era Elections

By SP/Robertus Wardi & SP/Carlos Paath on 9:59 am September 5, 2013.
Under Suharto’s presidency, universally denounced as undemocratic, there was no such thing as direct elections for regional leaders. And if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has his way, that could once again be the case by the end of this year. That is when the government hopes the House of Representatives will pass a set of proposed amendments to the 2004 Regional Governance Law to eliminate the election of mayors and district heads — a plan widely criticized as a throwback to the days of Suharto’s New Order regime. Read more of this post

Like India, Indonesia will pay for resting on its laurels

September 4, 2013 4:40 pm

Like India, Indonesia will pay for resting on its laurels

By David Pilling

Manmohan Singh was hailed as the superman of Indian reform – now he is merely Clark Kent

Indonesia has often been described as the next India. With 250m people, it has a huge population of aspiring consumers. Like India, it is a democracy, albeit a far more recent convert. Like India, too, its solid record of growth has been propelled not by manufactured exports but by domestic demand. When the global financial crisis struck, both economies weathered the storm better than most. Read more of this post

India’s inverted yield curve fails rupee and slams economy

India’s inverted yield curve fails rupee and slams economy

1:14am EDT

By Vidya Ranganathan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Viewed in one light, India’s steeply inverted yield curve is the result of a deliberate and classic policy strategy to defend a weak currency. From another perspective, it is pointing at deep economic problems to come, possibly even recession. Short-term interest rates in India are about 2 percentage points higher than long-term government bond yields, which makes the yield curve inverted. Typically short-term rates are lower than longer-term ones. Read more of this post

India scrambling to reduce oil bill inflated by sinking rupee

India scrambling to reduce oil bill inflated by sinking rupee

8:55pm EDT

By Jo Winterbottom and Manash Goswami

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – India’s top oil official is grasping at desperate measures to cut the country’s oil costs by nearly $20 billion after the rupee’s slide to record lows has left India facing an oil bill potentially 50 percent higher than on May 1. Oil Minister M. Veerappa Moily has suggested pricking the ballooning oil bill with everything from a street theatre campaign encouraging lower fuel use, to shutting fuel stations, to increasing imports from Iran. Read more of this post